1984 Granada BOA; small progress & Civic 25/10/24

The fuel tank was made years ago by someone that Powerspeed knew. Wasnt too pricey either, but could do with some baffles inside it really as I have discovered from track days at Brands and when cornering left slightly enthusiastic on the roads

Both pipes do indeed go underneath the cradle, and the offside one right underneath the tank as well

Managed to sneak into the workshop yesterday for a few hours to try and help out a tad, and find more work

Thought I'd cut out the grot on the inner wing which had a Mondeo washer bottle poking up through from in the wheel arch for a temporary measure all those years ago. Finally got fed up with the wheel catching it on full lock and the damn thing swinging about after dismounting itself also

So out with and angle grinder and some CAD work and I ended up with this


Dead proud of myself for making that up, only to almost instantly fall from grace when I thought what's hiding underneath that scabby bit nearby


However, the rear arches are now both on at least




And whilst the fuel tank is out, thats also going to get some modifying too, as currently that suffers with fuel starvation around left hand bends below half a tank of fuel

Always nice to see another granada getting a refurb.looking forward to seeing this all finished and shiny

And you're doing this why?? Still running out of fuel while cornering or something?

Still no progress updates, as I think my friendly welder is back on it today

However, I thought you retro rides lot may be interested to see the door builds I make up in a little bit of spare time I had several years ago. By no means perfect and they were/are my first attempt at such work

It all started off with wanting a bit more oomph from the Kenwood dual mag speakers that were just screwed in to the standard door cards.
They worked alright, but that was as good as you could get with flappy door cards

So I started out with some pieces of MDF (kindly laser cut at the missus work by a friend) and a base board made to follow the curve of the bottom of the door card itself



With the aid of a glue gun and some thin strips of metal stuck roughly in to the angle I was after



Then it was just a case of choosing some material to stretch over the front of the whole thing (just cheap polishing clothers in my case) and covering that with resin to set hard



then when that was set it was covered in some acoustic cloth and screwed on to the door cards that also got a coating of resin on the inside to stiffen those up as well
Currently on the look out for some grey alcantara to re cover the door pods with, but nowhere seems to stock it so I can check the colour compared to the Garnny interior

The pods have definately made an improvement to the sound though, as when I take out the sub box for boot space, the speakers themselves chuck out a decent amount of bass for just 4 13cm component speakers

The door cards are still uncut from fitting the door pods, just a few screw holes through the carpetted area that wont be seen should I decide to remove them

My friend is a dab hand at trimming interior parts with alcantara, and has suggested using brush on glue instead of spray can stuff.
Welder friend has got a pot of glue that should have ACME Glue written on the side of it. Smells lovely and held the carpet on to his wooden trims in his day van conversion very well

Before the welder had broken, there was a bit of progress about a fortnight ago

There was the rear screen surround completed a bit more, all the repair sections have been cut out and laid in place to check for fit and the nearside corner was buttoned up to. The rear screen has a drain either side to allow water out from between the screen rubber and the metal work of the lower section of surround.

There's about 3 layers there I seem to recall, once the rot was cut out there was then the reconstruction of the scabby bits underneath

this is the lowest panel which is also the part the water drains to and runs down the side of the boot opening from. Managed to get an action shot as well





Then the start of the middle/outer skin began



And rather than just drilling a hole to the lower screen panel section, Dave decided to slice, bent, weld and grind this little panel




That looks like this fitted up 




Also a small patch out from the offside screen area




And one to the boot floor where the water had leaked in and attacked!





The rear wheel arches got a rub down and a coating of Loctite rust remedy, and that goes on a treat and shows quickly the new and old metal 








So although it didnt seem a great deal of progress, much was done to help other parts progress along at least, and hopefully means that they will take less time as well 

Almost, but not quite yet. Still with all body parts intact and unsold
Although he is charging me (fair enough, he has a house he built to pay for after all), it's not been many solid days yet. Think its 7 or 8 so far.

The paint part is going to be the real pain part though, as that may be as much again as the welding cost
We shall see, as Dave is getting the painting main man down to have a look and do a quote when the welding is completed

car sounds good on the vid but having watched it at brands I can vouch it sounds bloody awesome from the outside too. may join you trackside next year if i've swapped out the solids discs by then